A Comforting Touch
by VanityWantsYou
Summary: Naruto needed someone to console him after returning from a failed mission... but that someone was a person he didn't expect. SaiNaru


**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

**I wrote this FOREVER ago. It's just a short little drabble thing I put together while bored and it's not a complete story... but I thought you'd enjoy it anyway. Please review!**

Rain fell in heavy sheets over Konohagakure, thunder rumbling through the dark skies and leading to a crackle of lightning in the distance. The bright light lit up the Fifth's face on the Hokage mountain, a shadowed figure leaping from the top of her head to her nose, crouching down as if surveying the area. There was another strike of lightning and there was a flicker orange and yellow before the entire village went black again.

Naruto fell back on the rock and stretched his limbs out, letting out a frustrated sigh as rain soaked through his loud jumpsuit and messy blond hair. His eyes were squinted as he stared up at the gray sky, his skin a little paler than usual from the cold weather. He shifted his arm and reached into his kunai pouch, tugging out fresh bandages.

Sitting up rather quickly, he pushed up his right pant leg to reveal bloody wraps that were twisted around his muscled calve. He stared at the crimson color with dull eyes before a clap of thunder interrupted his thoughts, his lashes fluttering closed for a moment as he tugged the bandages off and let them fall to the ground hundreds of feet below him.

"Kuso..." he growled in frustration and began applying the new wraps, not caring that they were already soaked all the way through with rain water. His fingers were stiff from the cold as he shoved his pant leg back down to his ankle, hoisting himself up and using chakra to keep himself from slipping off of the stone.

Leaping from his perch, he landed on the roof of a restaurant, then jumped to the ground, his sandals sinking into a shallow puddle of muddy water. Only a few villagers were out, all of them underneath decorative umbrellas while the rest of the village's population was probably inside of their homes watching television.

Turning to look down the shadowy street, he stared in the direction of his apartment complex, wondering if he should go home or not. There was really nothing there for him except for plain white bedsheets, his empty Froggy-chan wallet, and a reminder of the past.

He didn't want that, especially after he'd just finished a solo mission of looking for the Uchiha. It hadn't been permitted by Tsunade, but it was a mission nonetheless.

Walking down the muddy street, he ignored the stares he was receiving because of his lack of covering, not because of the Bijuu he harbored. The rain became heavier as he approached Ichiraku's, light blazing through the dark blue banners that hung from the edge of the roof. He glanced down, but spotted not a single pair of feet dangling from the stools inside.

He smiled bitterly to himself, really wanting the comfort of another person at that moment.

"Welcome," Ayame cheerfully greeted the blond as he stepped into the small ramen shop, but the smile slipped from her pretty face when she saw the condition her favorite customer was in. "N-Naruto-kun, you must be freezing!" her worried voice drew her father from the kitchen and after spotting the ill-looking shinobi, he mumbled something and immediately went to make a fresh bowl of miso for him.

Naruto offered the shorter girl a small grin and scratched at the floppy, damp locks on the back of his head in an apologetic way. "Gomen ne, Ayame-chan. I just got back from a mission and got caught in the rain on the way in. I'm sorry for getting the floor wet... do you want me to take off my sandals?"

The brunette shook her head and tapped the counter with her dainty hand, telling him to sit down. She handed him a white towel to dry his hair with and poured him some warm tea with a kind glint to her brown eyes. "This should warm you right up. Now, I'll be right back, I'm going to help my father with your miso."

The blond nodded and glanced down at his drink, cringing at the reflection of himself in the liquid. A droplet of water slipped down his forehead and to the tip of his nose, falling into the tea and creating ripples that distorted his face, the shinobi thankful that the little drop destroyed the one thing he didn't want to see at the moment.

But as the ripples became calm, a looming face over his shoulder appeared and pitch black eyes peered up at him under equally dark bangs. Naruto's eyes widened and he spun around, acting on impulse. Wrapping his large hands around a pale neck, he slammed the other person's body onto the counter, not wanting a chidori through the stomach again.

Paranoia quickly disappeared when he saw that it was Sai underneath him, not Sasuke..

"S-Sai..." he backed off and winced when he saw red marks on his teammate's neck. "Sorry, I--"

"It's alright," the artist smiled one of his true smiles and rubbed at the brusing marks with a gloved hand, as if it was no big deal. "You just returned from an A rank mission, I expected you to be a bit paranoid, considering what the mission was about."

The blond sighed deeply and sat back down, not even needing to tell his friend to sit down before the raven placed himself right next to him. There was a silence, but it was far from akward. Sai was one of the few friends Naruto could talk to about anything...

"I found him again..." he whispered hoarsely, barely above a whisper. "I found him just on the outskirts of the Fire Country, but once again..." Naruto glared down at the counter, "I wasn't able to bring him back. It was me against him and all of his teammates. I didn't have a chance."

Sai absorbed the information. "How did you escape?"

Naruto cringed. "I was left for dead... that was how," his voice wavered, but Sai didn't know if it was from anger or sadness. "Sasuke had shoved his fist right through my gut and after that, I'd blacked out... When I'd woken up, they were gone and Kyuubi had healed my wounds," he looked at Sai with beautiful cerulean eyes. "And the one thing that's been on my mind is how Sasuke could've left me there without checking to see if I was really dead. I want to believe that he still sees me as his best friend, that I still mean something to him... but then he could've just done it to torture me."

The pale teenager glanced up when Ayame came back and placed a hot bowl of miso in front of Naruto, asking if Sai would like anything. The Root member shook his head and turned back to the person he considered his closest and dearest friend. And he knew how much the orange-clad ninja loved the Uchiha, how his feelings ran deeper than just friendship.

"I'm so confused..." Naruto admitted and hung his head, pressing his palms over his eyes to try and block out the last flickering images of Sasuke that had carved themselves into his mind the moment the raven had shoved his fist forward. "I hate how he can effect me like this..!"

Sai pushed the bowl of miso closer to Naruto and offered him a smile, even though the other couldn't see it.

"Naruto-san, eat so that you don't become ill. There's no need to worry about the Uchiha right now, not when you have your health to worry about."

Naruto nodded hesitently and lifted his head, reaching forward to grab chopsticks from a red cup. Breaking the wooden sticks apart, he stared at the food with a blank face and mumbled a quiet and broken "itadakimasu".

xXxXx

The storm hadn't let up one bit by the time Sai and Naruto had arrived at the raven's apartment, but neither of them cared since it fit the mood. As they walked in, the scent of the artist's abode took effect. The smell of the place was a mix between cocoa and vanilla, something that somewhat soothed Naruto's stiff body and his rampant thoughts. His scarred cheeks lifted in a hint of happiness as he saw a picture Sai had drawn of Sakura. The female looked just as beautiful in the portrait as she did in real life.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you had a crush on her," Naruto joked, his voice low and raspy. He stripped himself of his shoes, jacket, and hitai ate. He dropped the articles by the door and ran a tan hand through his hair, letting out a wavering breath.

Sai raised a delicate brow as he took off the coat he'd had on, leaving himself in his usual attire that mainly consisted of a belly shirt and baggy pants. Carefully hanging his coat over the edge of his sitting chair, he went into the small kitchen, all the while watching his companion move around the apartment with slight curiosity, his muscular body subdued from what Sai assumed to be fatigue.

"I have no interest in women," the shorter of the two stated dully, pulling a bottle of water out of the fridge. Naruto glanced over and saw the liquid, immediately grimacing and scrunching his nose up in disgust.

"Could you get me a soda or something? It's been pouring down rain for the past week and I'm pretty sick of looking at water."

Sai chuckled and put the bottle away, pulling out a can of root beer instead and tossing it to his teammate. He went back into the sitting area and sat down on the couch with a grace that annoyingly reminded Naruto of the Uchiha. The blond winced and glanced away, opening the soda and sitting down next to Sai.

There was a silence, but it was broken by a loud clap of thunder. Blue eyes roamed over the dim room and his irises consumsed his pupils as he focused in on a canvas in the far corner of the small room. It was a half-completed painting, but he could tell by the outlines and colors that it was a picture of Sasuke.

His eyes narrowed and he turned toward Sai with a look of confusion, his fingers tightening around the can in his grasp.

"What's that?" he grounded out bitterly.

Sai looked over at the painting and one of his false smiles appeared, only making Naruto feel less at ease.

"It's the Uchiha," he answered, not the least bit mockingly.

"I know who it is," Naruto growled. "But **why** did you draw him?"

The raven slowly blinked, his face as blank as it always was. Lightning flashed outside, illuminating the inside of the apartment with a brilliant golden light. At that moment, with his bangs a mess and covering his eyes, Sai looked exactly Sasuke... and that frightened Naruto.

"Sakura tells me that my art holds emotions and that they have their own emotions and stories," he continued to stare at his own piece of art, one finished dark eye staring at him with an embedded hatred. "So I decided to draw him. I thought that if I painted him, then I could see into his emotions and somehow understand why he gave you up."

Naruto stiffened on the couch. "Gave me... up?"

"You are a wonderful person, Naruto-san, and you are worth far more than any jutsu Orochimaru could give the Uchiha."

The tan shinobi's lips turned upward and he grinned, his slanted eyes reminding Sai of the Kyuubi. The both of them sat in silence for a while longer as the artist lifted a worn out sketchpad from his glass coffee table. He flipped to a blank page and pulled a dulled down pencil from inside of the swirled wire that kept the tablet together, his wrist flicking back and forth as an image came to mind. He peaked at Naruto from the corner of his eye every so often, making sure the blond wasn't looking.

Naruto was staring down at his drink with a sort of transfixed fascination, though the feeling of eyes on him made him look up. He had become somewhat paranoid in the past few months due to his sudden desire to have Sasuke back in his life, always wondering if the eyes on him were the heated ones of his best friend and rival. He'd gotten used to it in the long years after the avenger had left, though, but just a few months ago the urge to argue with the raven, challenge him, spar with him, spend time with him... it all rushed back and crushed his heart and hopes.

He had realized at that moment that Sasuke would never come back on his own, no matter how strong their bond was. If Naruto wanted his best friend back, he'd have to defeat him and drag him back, bloody and unconscious. He had to act soon or else he would lose Sasuke forever... But every attempt he made ended in complete failure. Sasuke had surpassed him greatly.

"What're you doing?" he asked Sai. The other male finished his picture with a swift jerk of his fingers and he held out the tablet, showing Naruto a picture of him. It was done so quickly, so of course it was simple. But it harbored so many different emotions. Resentment, hope, love, hatred, adoration, betrayal, and a swelling sadness that seemed to be soaked in with the shallow pencil lines.

He smiled sadly.

"You're amazing Sai..." he whispered and laughed airily. "You know me more than I know myself sometimes," he ran his fingers over the whisker marks on the sketch's face, pausing by the ear. "Why couldn't I have fallen in love with you instead...? I know you wouldn't leave like Sasuke..."

Sai's face didn't change at all after those softly spoken words. They held so much sadness and nostalgia, but he made no move to open his mouth or comfort the blond.

Naruto's shoulders shook and the small amount of control he'd had over himself slipped away, his eyes shutting tightly as tears moistened his long eyelashes. He gritted his teeth and lowered his head, his fingers clutching the material of his pants as soft sobs racked his thick frame. He hated showing weakness, since he was supposed to be one of the best shinobi in Konoha, supposed to be the future Hokage... but around Sai and Sakura, he let himself fall apart, knowing that they would pick up the pieces and put him back together again.

"Every attempt, every time, I always fail...!" he hissed through clenched teeth, the storm outside matching his swirling feelings. "I always thought I had a chance, that I could bring Sasuke back no matter what because I was me! The great Uzumaki Naruto! Everyone said I could do it, but I can't... He's so much stronger than me now, Sai," he looked up, his eyes glazed over with a layer of moisture. "He can even close off Kyuubi's chakra!" his shoulders continued to shake, but not from tears. It seemed as if he was having a nervous twitch.

Sai slowly removed his sketchpad from Naruto's grasp and closed it, sitting it on the coffee table before shifting to face his bothered friend. Despite how strong-minded the loud ninja was, every shinobi struggled with inner turmoil at least once in their lifetime, and now was Naruto's turn. But even though the blond didn't show it, he'd suffered so much pain his entire life, and this was his breaking point.

"Don't doubt yourself. You'll be able to bring him home."

Naruto shook his head harshly in disagreement and leaned forward, pressing his palms against his eyes and hanging his head once again. He always did that when he wanted to carve out an image in his mind. He looked fairly weak at that moment, despite the strong muscles on his tall body.

"No, no I won't. How long has it been, Sai..? Six years?" he chuckled bitterly and lowered his hands, his eyes closed as if he was resting. "He's so ahead of me..." his lips twitched and became tight. "How--how did the gap get so wide? No, the problem isn't that he's stronger than me, it's that I'm too weak to bring him back."

Sai's face remained impassive, but he reached his arms out and tugged the blond toward him, against his chest. He wasn't sure what emotion to show, so he only closed his eyes and pressed a warm hand into tangled, golden locks that were damp from the rain. He didn't understand human emotions very well and was even worse with expressing them, but when he saw his friend upset, he felt something inside him throb.

Naruto's eyes shot wide open in shock as his mind processed the fact that Sai, a person more emotionless than Sasuke, was holding him in a comforting manner. It was the first time he'd received such a kind gesture from his teammate, but he wasn't going to complain, his body becoming relaxed and melting into the gentle touch.

His body had been aching for the caresses and his heart had been craving the attention.

The warmth of the other's body was comforting and Naruto found himself wanting to get closer.

"I want him back so much..." he admitted brokenly, eyes still wet. Not yet had a tear been shed. "I need him here, I need to see him everyday like back when we were thirteen..." the pale hands that had been in his hair moved down to his back, fingertips brushing over naked skin. Goosebumps rose where they had touched and Naruto focused on the memories he had of Sasuke, wishing he was the one touching him and holding him. "I **want** him," his shoulders shook. "I want Sasuke so much...!"

There was shifting and Naruto felt those hands pull away. He lifted his head and looked up, his eyes becoming wide as he saw Sasuke staring down at him, those dark eyes boring into his very soul. His bangs were hanging limply in his eyes, so similar to the last time Naruto had seen him a few days ago...

"S-Sasuke..." he muttured the name quietly, as if raising his voice would make the slightly shorter man disappear. He sat up slowly and carefully, reaching a hand out to touch a warm cheek. He almost choked on his sob as he felt the indent on the raven's high cheekbone from when he'd punched him during their academy days. "Is that really you...?"

The paler shinobi let another hand join the other on his face, his lips parting slightly.

"I can be whoever you want me to be," the voice was definitely Sasuke's, but Naruto knew deep down it wasn't him.

"Sai..." he whispered brokenly. "Don't do this."

Sai furrowed his brows much like Sasuke would do back in the days as a member of Team 7, his lips tightly pressing together. Not only could Sai copy a person down to their bone structure, he could mimic their personality fairly well too, only making Naruto lean away from him.

"Naruto," he breathed, the voice so dark and ominous. "I need you."

Naruto shook his head and tried to move, but only fell back onto the far end of the sofa. He looked frightened, yet he had desire in his eyes. He wanted to pull the raven against him and tell him how much he missed him, but he knew it wasn't him.

"D-don't--"

"I love you," Sai whispered, knowing that would suck the blond in. He had no intention of hurting the man he somewhat loved, he just wanted him to have Sasuke for one night so that he wouldn't break beyond repair. He adored the cheerful and joyful Kyuubi vessel and if that smile was ever lost, he wouldn't have a reason to stay with Team 7 anymore.

If he could ever put a name on what it was he felt for Naruto, it would most likely be love. But what he was doing now wasn't because he wanted to have sex with him, it was because he wanted to mend the ninja's shattering heart and give him the one thing he desired.

Uchiha Sasuke.

Sai knew that Naruto only loved Sasuke and that he, himself, would never have a chance... but that wouldn't stop him from trying to make the future Hokage happy.

"Naruto," he whispered and leaned down, looking into those cerluean orbs. "Do you love me?"

Naruto instantly wrapped his arms around Sai's neck and yanked him down for a fierce kiss, their saliva mingling together and being shared between them in a seemingly endless embrace of lips and tongues. The heat between them flared and even though Sai knew little about physical attraction, he found his body tingling everytime he came in contact with Naruto's soft lips and bare skin.

The blond pulled away and looked up, smiling weakly. It wasn't a grin, but it looked like Sai was getting closer to his goal of easing Naruto's aching heart for the moment.

"I love you," he nipped his way up a defined jaw and sucked graciously on a pale earlobe, pulling it in between his lips. Sai grunted in response and leaned further down, pressing his lips against Naruto's own ear.

"Thank you..."

"Thank you?"

"Yes," Sai whispered and leaned in closer to the heated body. "Thank you for bringing me back..."

And then he swept Naruto away in a wave of passion, letting him believe he had brought the Uchiha back, feeding him what he wanted and needed to hear through words of love and desire.


End file.
